Many young athletes dream are making it big within their sport, whether that be going to a Division I school or playing professionally; there are always many goals set. However, for one athlete in particular, they were able to achieve this goal: senior Maggie Sneider.
During her junior year, Sneider made the commitment to continue her academic and athletic career playing Division I lacrosse at Lindenwood. With these types of decisions comes lots of pondering whether or not this is the best opinion, but Sneider had an idea of what her dream school would look like.
“Well, I knew I wanted to go out of state,” Sneider said. “And [Lindenwood] was a good midsize school. I went on my visit, and I liked the campus and the atmosphere there. It’s all athletes, which is really exciting, and it just seemed like a good fit for me.”
Even though this type of decision would impact her future, Sneider had help from those around her. But overall, she knew that this type of decision would come down to what she wants and needs.
“I had a lot of help from my parents,” Sneider said. “My brother had just gone through the recruiting process for lacrosse, so they kind of knew what they were expecting. I obviously had lots of like input from people around me about what I should do. But ultimately, the decision came down to myself.”
Although this decision was difficult, there was much more that allowed her to gain this opportunity for her athletic career. Through all the sacrifices made and the hard work, Sneider comments on what exactly allowed her skill set to grow.
“Well, the lacrosse team last year,” Sneider said. “There were a lot of girls who were going Division I. So, being able to play with them, I felt like I was ready for that level of lacrosse. I just felt like playing with really good players that were going to play at that level showed me that I could, too.”
Along with the hard work that she applied to her talents, she had many influences throughout her lacrosse career that motivated her to go Division I. Some were the past athletes, in particular, that she had the opportunity to play with who also achieved going to play lacrosse at the Division I level.
“Some of the [last years] seniors like Gabby Hendricks, Delaney [Smith], Tori [Bates], Margaret [English], Shannon [Murphy],” Sneider said. “All of all are now playing higher level collegiate lacrosse.”
One aspect that helped her tremendously within these past few years is the other sports that she plays. She is both on the varsity basketball team and the varsity volleyball team. With these sports, they have helped her in ways that only playing lacrosse would not have been able to achieve.
“There’s definitely a lot of similarities, especially with basketball and lacrosse,” Sneider said. “There’s a lot with the movement of the play, and the speed is very similar.”
In all, even though lacrosse is a spring sport, Sneider has many ways that she is gearing up and preparing for this season.
“I’m just keeping the stick my hands, doing things outside of school with like my club team with fall tournaments and staying in shape with my other sports,” Sneider said. “So we have weekend tournaments. Some days, we just play like seven on sevens or what they call fall ball.”
